Mandatory retirement eyed for MoI civilian staff over 30 yrs in service

January 4, 2015, 8:35 am

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khalid Al-Sabah has been considering compulsory retirement of civilian staff in the ministry who have put in over 30 years of service by middle of this month, reports Al-Rai daily. The daily quoting a source noted the minister is trying to restructure the ministry by putting in ‘fresh blood’ to stimulate its activities to brazen out future challenges. He said the proposal is coming up after the retirement of over 400 senior police officers with the ranks of Major General, Brigadier, Colonel and Lt. Colonel.

He hinted the decision is also a way of executing the government plan to retire employees in all ministries who have served for 30 years. He stated over 156 employees affected by the decision include civilian heads of departments, directors and deputy directors who will be replaced with younger personnel.

Meanwhile, Al-Rai newspaper reported the Assistant Undersecretary for Financial and Administrative Affairs at Ministry of Interior Major General Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah directed the concerned officials to retrieve over KD 200,000 paid in error to some staff plus unpaid debts in the Ministry of Education. The directive was contained in a letter from Major General Al-Abdullah to the Undersecretary at Ministry of Education Dr Maryam Al-Wateed.

The letter revealed that some of the staff owing the Education Ministry are out of job already. It also revealed that their guarantors remain in active service but they stopped paying the debts. He wanted to know why the guarantors discontinued the payment of debts before the ministry embarked on the procedures to recover the loans.

Major General Al-Abdullah attached to the letter the list of names of debtors and the value of their debts, indicating the loans payable by the debtors range from KD 1,720 to KD 200,000. In the meantime, there is a possibility that a public university will be constructed in Sabah Al-Salem area with the aim of accommodating the ever-growing number of school graduates, reports Al-Anba daily quoting governmental sources.

They revealed that the Cabinet’s technical committee is waiting for the endorsement of the government’s Universities Bill in order to launch necessary steps in this regard, indicating that the new university will be named after the Global Humanitarian Leader and HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in honor of his efforts to support the educational field.

Some academics commended the government’s plan, affirming that the university will be major step in the development of human resources in Kuwait. They stressed the need for providing courses on advanced technical majors that will uphold the vision of transforming Kuwait into a financial hub of the region.

The sources indicated that building more governmental universities will reduce the expenditures of the state in granting local and foreign scholarships, revealing that the state spends more than KD 500 million every year and throughout the period of studies for this purpose.